mcmurry-armstrong] CRITICISM OF NATURE-STUDY 2$ 



cant mountains, etc. Above all, we shall be unwilling to drop into 

 the state-treatment of our theme, which means a mere aggregation 

 of facts, dry enough to cause a healthy child to long to play 

 hookev, not for the pleasures anticipated, but for the pains 

 escaped. 



" These three recommendations together call for such an organ- 

 ization of subject-matter as has thus far been scarcely attempted. 

 The thoroness customary — and probably justified — in the three 

 R's and spelling, ignored unity of arrangement entirely ; indeed, 

 was independent of it. But the thoroness proper to other studies 

 presupposes organization, and is based upon it. This kind of 

 thoroness requires that much attention be directed to relative 

 values of perspective, and to sequence, just as in a story. 



" And such organization must be planned from the learner's 

 point of view. Up to the present, however, the content of studies 

 has been determined from the scientific point of view, so far as 

 there was a point of view, and the love of ' truth for truth's sake ' 

 has been so marked that one fact has seemed nearly as good as 

 another ; hence the curriculum of the common school reveals little 

 selection or pedagogical arrangement. Studies like geography 

 and nature-study are little more than conglomerate masses of fact, 

 showing our educational development to be still in the barbarous 

 stage. Studies in the high school and college are little better. 

 History, for example, is no better organized there than in the 

 grades, and probably not so well. To be sure, in some subjects, 

 there is a more highly developed classification, but it is not the 

 classification most appropriate to the learning mind, because the 

 scientist's point of view is not that of the learner ; it is rather that 

 of the philosopher, who has digested his field and then arranges 

 it logically, not psychologically." 



In concluding his paper Dr. McMurry admits that his sug- 

 gestions set a great task, one " for the most advanced and ablest 

 students of education, who are as well posted in subject-matter as 

 in the principles of education itself. Even these have more than 

 a life problem in such a task." But this should not keep any 

 teacher or director of nature-study in any of its phases from 

 making improvements by beginning to apply some of the above 

 principles of selection. Probably very few experts in nature- 

 study will seriously oppose Dr. McMurry's declaration that there 

 is much useless nature-study teaching, and that the time has now 



